There is nearly always some dissent within a political party concerning an issue that conflicts with a member’s personal ideology or benefit for constituents that prevents them from supporting a specific agenda. In the ever-expanding Republican war on women though, there is complete agreement that there are no limits on the degrading and pernicious means to deny women the right to good health whether it is reproductive health or not. There was outrage last week when House Republicans convened a panel on denying access to birth control with five men and no women, and although it is incredibly outrageous, no intelligent human being should have been the least bit surprised. There is this misconception that the war on women escalated when Catholic bishops asserted their control over the Republicans in Congress to block contraception coverage, but this war began in earnest in 2009 and the first major assault began on the second day of the 112th Congress, and contraception coverage was not the issue.

The audacious assault on contraception last Thursday revealed the anti-women sentiments of misogynist Republicans in congress and state legislatures, as well as donors to presidential candidates. Rick Santorum’s biggest donor gave advice to women on birth control and said, “On this contraceptive thing, my gosh, it’s so inexpensive. You know, back in my days, they used Bayer Aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.” A Virginia legislator rationalized a law that forces women to undergo invasive transvaginal procedures prior to having an abortion said, “A woman already consented to being “vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant.” A woman’s enemy and chairman of the House Oversight Committee convened to deny women access to contraceptives defended excluding a woman to testify on the all-male panel by saying, “she is not appropriate and qualified.” Obviously, Republican males are better qualified to make health care decisions for women, and if Issa had allowed the woman to testify, the panel would have understood contraceptives serve important healthcare functions besides birth control.

The Republican presidential candidates are all allied with the Republicans in Congress and they have signaled that if elected, they will continue the war on women regardless of the outcome of the contraceptive battle. In fact, every Republican, male and female, joined the war against women in early 2009 during the healthcare reform debate. Some of the most important features of the Affordable Care Act addressed discrimination in the insurance industry against women, and it explains Republican’s opposition to the health law. The GOP’s war on women is really a war on women’s healthcare.

Any Republican that opposes or promises to repeal the health law opposes insurance covering: birth control, breast cancer screening, coverage for maternity and newborn care, women paying the same for insurance as men, keeping women under 26 on their parent’s insurance, screening for diabetes, and eliminating domestic violence as a pre-existing condition as well as closing the “donut hole” for prescription drugs. After promising to make job creation their highest priority during the 2010 elections; what is the first thing victorious Republicans and teabaggers do when they started the 112th Congress? Vote to repeal coverage for these crucial women’s health care issues. Republican males are pigs and one has to wonder what their wives must think of their assault on other women, because any man who actively attacks anonymous women over their healthcare is also punishing their wives, daughters, and mothers.

Republican males have traditionally opposed women’s rights on myriad issues from gender equity in pay to changing the definition of rape to protect sexual predators. However, Republican women are just as culpable for voting and supporting their favorite misogynist in Congress and state legislature. In 2009, fresh off of defeat in the general election, Republican pig Sarah Palin went on a crusade to defame the health law as the start of “death panels.” Of course, Palin whored herself to Fox News so she will never have to face economic hardships and challenges to afford cancer screenings or being charged 150% more for health insurance than a man. Michele Bachmann will never have to worry about maternity coverage or new baby care and leads stupid women teabaggers in calling for the ACA’s repeal. It is expected that female Republican legislators and former half-term loser governor’s will join the good ole’ boys in assailing millions of American women, but the sheer stupidity of women who support men like Santorum, Romney, Gingrich, or any other Republican candidate is stunning. Any woman who supports a Republican for president is pathetic, and watching Romney, Santorum, or Gingrich promise to repeal the ACA and seeing women in the audience wildly cheering is sickening. There is nothing as pitiful as watching a victim cheer on her assailant like they were the Messiah.

These wretched women who support Republicans are as evil as their heroes, and there can only be a few reasons they oppose the health law and women’s right to healthcare. They are either racists who oppose an African American as president, serial women abusers, suffer from Stockholm Syndrome, or are trapped in a cult that demands subjection to a man as a pre-condition to enter heaven. Or, it is possible they are just incredibly stupid and would rather see their daughters, mothers and sisters suffer from Republicans’ anti-women policies than accept that the health law is beneficial and worth supporting.

It is beyond belief that any woman would support a Republican for any office, and yet there they are; cheering Republican presidential hopefuls with full knowledge their first act if elected will be denying millions of their sisters, mothers and daughters critical health care coverage. The male Republican legislators and presidential hopefuls are pigs, but the women who support and campaign for them are stupid pigs for helping deny other women basic healthcare coverage. If a woman refuses preventative cancer screenings, new baby coverage, or contraception, it is their right to choose for themselves. It is stupid, but it is their right to be stupid. However, giving unwavering support to Republican lawmakers and candidates so they can deny every other woman healthcare coverage is pure evil. It is also a sign that any person who would deny women the right to healthcare options is deficient of basic human compassion and, since 2009, all Republicans qualify as despicable whether they are male or female. One just expects women to show more compassion than Republican males, but as the war on women demonstrates, there is no difference between male or female Republicans; they are all evil.

Republicans Don’t Agree On Much But They’re 100% Unified On Degrading Women was written by Rmuse for PoliticusUSA.

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.

13 Responses to Republicans Don’t Agree On Much But They’re 100% Unified On Degrading Women

Shiva (Moderator)

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 10:41 am

I can see the Republicans in our government trying to present laws that say all men must wear beards.The GOP at this point is little more than sharia law. And the above includes Ron Paul who is trying to pass his own bills that take away the rights of women.

What kind of woman can support the actions of the GOP other than those who want to be subservient to men.

Maple

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 10:50 am

What kind of woman can support the actions of the GOP ?

The kind that has no SELF-respect. The kind that never learned to think for themselves (and who are raising their daughters the same way). And, without doubt, the kind that are abused from day one and have never known anything else.

Brian

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 11:12 am

I disagree with your headline, “Republicans Don’t Agree On Much”. I beg to differ. Pretty much every Republican I’ve ever come in contact with falls in line with the party’s platform on EVERY ISSUE. That’s what makes them so frightening to me.

Reynardine

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 11:51 am

Earlier, I discussed begrudging envy: that state of mind which is much more concerned with denying someone else something good than with obtaining it for oneself. It’s a dominant thread in the patchwork minds of antifeminist women. They hate to see other women “getting away with it”, whether it’s education, careers, egalitarianism, a marriage- free life or a domination-free marriage, child-free sex, sexual pleasure for one’s own sake rather than to “surrender” out of “love” for a master; fitness and good health untroubled by “female trouble” and painful and dangerous childbirth. Some of these women have been broken by a misogynist upbringing or a brutal marriage. Some have been “queen bees” elevated by privileged status or beauty above other women, and they want to keep their self-perceived pre-eminence. They are all, however, miserable sods, and finding it either dangerous or imprudent to vent their misery on men, they are desperate to keep other women from knowing anything better.

Rmuse

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Reynardine – Well put. Begrudging envy applies to union workers, civil servants, and any profession where benefits and a decent retirement are part of the deal. Instead of aspiring to every American having a decent life, those vile people want everyone to suffer like themselves, or lose what they worked for. It doesn’t speak well about the character of a very large segment of the population.

jjm

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 12:17 pm

I don’t understand the structure of this particular fantasy — that if we could just curtail women’s liberation, and put them back under our thumbs, our country will become a dreamland.

Who has convinced the GOP of this as a strategy for appealing to men? What do men actually think of this idea?

Just as the GOP seems bent of re-fighting the 1860s (Get rid of the 14th amendment!), the 1930s (“Get rid of Social Security!), the 1960s (No more Medicare and above all, no more civil rights, in fact, no HUMAN RIGHTS! — see the Heritage Foundation on that one), they are now fighting the past two decades when women did gain a measure of equality and therefore of power.

But a winning idea? I can’t believe it would appeal to so many people that the GOP will return to absolute power over us.

Deborah Montesano

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 1:17 pm

They are appealing to a minority of a minority, the radical right. No thinking man or woman could support what they are advocating. I don’t believe that most men in this country want the burden of endless children any more than women do. ‘Fantasy’ is the right word, but it’s incredibly sad to see that there are any women who would support this misogyny.

Mo

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 2:06 pm

Corey Robins scores again in his The Reactionary Mind. What drives these men is fear of loss of power – over employees, over non-whites, over women. They simply cannot face the possibility of having to behave like a considerate human being instead of a tin-pot dictator. As Robins point out, it’s a reaction. Some underclass rises up, and they’re agin it.

It must be incredibly galling for these old white buffoons to have women stand up and spit in their eyes. Go Gr-r-r-r-rls! Let ’em have it.

Reynardine

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 2:36 pm

This may bear on why such types, even when not members of that group and when they don’t even know the parties, invariably help pedophiles escape prosecution…and, I venture, why they do the same for familial batterers and social bullies both. The small must not rebel.

Jim

Wed, Feb 22nd, 2012 at 6:15 pm

We’re getting to be somewhere between A Handmaid’s Tale and the Taliban. Good thing GOP frontrunners are certain losers in the general!

Tom 1

Thu, Feb 23rd, 2012 at 12:46 am

I value women as human beings therefor I will never vote republican.

Donna

Sat, Feb 25th, 2012 at 6:22 pm

I think the problem is that some women have always sought power through men by manipulating them rather than pursuing success on their own merit. These women are the last vestiges of a time when this was the only means to power for a woman. These women are threatened by a woman with her own power because they cannot, in their view, compete with her. They were raised in an archaic system of belief that perpetuates the notion that she is inferior, and if she secretly does not believe that, her only recourse to power, in that system, is the previously mentioned one, through men. So of course she continues to back them. They aren’t the enemy, we are.